Monthly Archives: January 2010

Growing up California, Dungeness crab season has always been a favorite time of year. It is its own season. And having lived here my whole life, I know how crab is cooked. Its steamed. While it is yummy in simple foods like tacos, and disappears in casserole type dishes, the best way to eat crab is to just get your fingers messy picking apart a steamed crab. A little bread, some clarified butter for dipping, and a nice glass of wine.

In recent years, more and more restaurant reviews boast of delectable roasted crab. Some are spicy, others garlicky, and others including with Vietnamese flavors. But roasted crab? Really?

This week, crab and chicken breasts sold for the same price at the grocery store. What a perfect time to experiment with roasted crab at home. This is certainly a departure from simple steamed crab and is scrumptious in its own way. The flavor of oranges with just a little heat from the chilies is a perfect match for the dungeness crab. Messy? You betcha. Be sure to have plenty of napkins on hand.

3. Place skillet in oven and roast crabs until heated through, stirring once, about 12 minutes.

4. Using tongs, transfer crabs to platter. Add orange juice and peel to same skillet; boil until sauce is reduced by about half, about 5 minutes. Spoon sauce over crabs. Sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon thyme and 1 tablespoon parsley and serve.

Notes:

The cooking goes pretty quickly, so get all of the ingredients prepared and at your side before beginning.

For easier cooking and serving, separate the crab into pieces before adding them to the skillet.

Need to cook for a crowd? Large family? Make a few extras to share or stash for lunches? Here’s your recipe. Arroz con Pollo. Basically, we’ve got chicken, rice, and some veggies working together to make sheer comfort food. This recipe came from my father in law quite a few years ago. I know that because it is printed in black and white, while anything from the past few years is in color. He is a good cook and along with Sandi they practice and perfect dishes, then kindly share them out. Nice!

The original recipe calls for “chicken parts” which could mean whatever is on sale that day. I tend to go with a whole chicken because it is economical and any home cook clearly equates breaking down your basic chicken with cooking street creds. And yes, this is one area where I’ve got street creds.

This arroz con pollo is another of those recipes where if you read it through first, you’ll notice that while the meat is cooking you can chop the vegetables, and while the vegetables cook, you can get out the spices and open the canned tomatoes and wine (ok, you may want to open that wine earlier, but still), and by the time they are all cooking happily together, you can clean up the chopping board, read the mail, and enjoy another glass of wine. Once again, nice.

Directions:

1. In a dutch oven or large pot, heat the oil on medium high. Brown the chicken on all sides in batches and transfer to a platter.

2. Brown the sausage, breaking it up into bite sized pieces. Transfer to a platter. Drain all but 1 TBS of the oil in the pan.

3. Reduce heat to medium and saute the onion, pepper, and garlic until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the cumin, paprika, chili powder, and tumeric to the pot, and stir. Return the chicken and sausage to the pot and stir gently to mix evenly.

4. Add the canned tomatoes with liquids, wine, and bay leaf to the pot. Increase the heat to medium – high and cook for 2 minutes.

5. Add rice and water. Stir. Bring to a boil, cover,and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until the rice is done and the liquid is absorbed, about 25 minutes. If excess liquid remains at that time, remove the lid and continue cooking until most of the liquid has evaporated.

6. Remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes. Serve.

Notes:

I cut the chicken breasts in half so they are of a similar size and cooking time as the other parts.

This was served with a simple salad of romaine and spicy ranch dressing. For the dressing, just add some salsa to ranch dressing and stir.

The cumin is the must have spice on this list. If one of the others is not in your pantry today, no need to purchase it just for this dish.

Shopping while hungry is a dangerous act, but putting together the shopping list for the week while hungry allows for a bit of reasoned thought. Needing some warming vegetarian ideas, I headed over to the Cookbooks 101 which is always a dependable source of healthy homey foods. She had just posted the Ribollita recipe and, figuring that was some kind of sign from the blogging gods and goddesses, the ingredients were quickly added to the shopping list. Plus, I’m a sucker for brothy soups with kale. It adds great texture and flavor, plus you look so healthy when buying that big bunch of dark leafy greens at the store. Call it grocery store vanity.

The recipe here is straight from the Cookbooks 101 blog, and omitting the olives was my only alteration.

Oh, how can anyone not simply love butternut squash? Sure, it takes a bit of care, but it can even be purchased ready to steam these days at Trader Joe’s. Somehow, my family does not yet appreciate the joys of butternut squash. Surely this would be the remedy.

Results? I had pretty much the whole thing to myself at home. When sharing this dish with Renee’s family, they politely said they liked it. But, their 13 year old son coming back for 3rds was proof that other butternut squash lovers do exist in this universe!

This was made from Giada deLaurentiis’ recipe. Straight up. Using only 3 of those lovely Amaretto cookies seemed a shame, until the family quickly snacked them up with no complaints. Yes, we have the traditional wide noodles. Between them are a lovely milky roux with fresh basil (hence the hint of green) and steamed and pureed butternut squash. Somehow, both sweet and savory flavors come though.

Directions:

Heat the oil in a heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the squash and toss to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour the water into the skillet and then cover and simmer over medium heat until the squash is tender, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Cool slightly and then transfer the squash to a food processor. Add the amaretti cookies and blend until smooth. Season the squash puree, to taste, with more salt and pepper.

Melt the butter in a heavy medium-size saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk for 1 minute. Gradually whisk in the milk. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the sauce thickens slightly, whisking often, about 5 minutes. Whisk in the nutmeg. Cool slightly. Transfer half of the sauce to a blender*. Add the basil and blend until smooth. Return the basil sauce to the sauce in the pan and stir to blend. Season the sauce with salt and pepper, to taste.

Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees F.

Lightly butter a 13 by 9 by 2-inch glass baking dish. Spread 3/4 cup of the sauce over the prepared baking dish. Arrange 3 lasagna noodles on the bottom of the pan. Spread 1/3 of the squash puree over the noodles. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese. Drizzle 1/2 cup of sauce over the noodles. Repeat layering 3 more times.

Tightly cover the baking dish with foil and bake the lasagna for 40 minutes. Sprinkle the remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses over the lasagna. Continue baking uncovered until the sauce bubbles and the top is golden, 15 minutes longer. Let the lasagna stand for 15 minutes before serving.

Notes:

Honestly, I burned the first batch of butternut squash. Medium heat? Which medium? On the power burner, medium burner, or simmer burners? Low and slow is what you need here.

Couldn’t find no boil noodles in my discount grocer, so just got the dry noodles and cooked them al dente.

Everyone needs a dish to whip up at a moment’s notice to stretch a meal for additional guests at the table or to bring to a shared meal. Lately, this has been my “go to” salad. It is a snap to prepare, the ingredients last nicely in the fridge for several days or even a week, and it incorporates the sweet, savory, and earthy tastes of winter. This salad must have made it to at least three Monday Night Football social gatherings before anyone realized I kept bringing the same tasty salad week after week. And even then, there were certainly no complaints to be heard. The recipe as listed here is perfect for a small crowd but can be pared down as needed. While much easier to explain in sentences, here we go in the traditional recipe format:

Ingredients:

12 to 16 oz lettuce (spring mix or butter lettuce work best, romaine nor iceberg do so well in this salad)

Count me in on fans of leftover turkey. Really now, the reason for cooking a bird really is for those second and third meals. Especially sandwiches.

Christmas dinner was a several family affair this year. We LOVE this time together, and decided to share with a few more families which tripled the number of people at our tables. The Big Deal of this feast is always the amazing prime rib prepared by my husband. But, with so many at our table this year, we decided to add a deep fried turkey. That meant left over turkey with lovely crispy skin bits. Oh, yum!

While I wouldn’t deep fry a turkey just for this sandwich, making or purchasing cranberry bread is a must. That cranberry bread puts this over the top!

Ingredients:

6 cups turkey meat, roughly chopped

4 hard boiled eggs

6 oz sweet gherkin pickles, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

2TBS Dijon mustard

3/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup light sour cream

Lettuce leaves

Cranberry bread

Directions:

1. Peel the hard boiled eggs, remove the yolk from two of the eggs, and roughly chop.